About a month ago I started a post to update on what was going on in my life: Brian and I moved to Temple to take care of his grandmother, who had been discharged from a rehab home after being diagnosed with congestive heart failure and COPD. I started writing this the evening of July 18, I believe, and it was saved, so here is what I had written:
As I sit here listening to Brian play his grandmother's favorite hymns on her old piano, everything that has happened in the last few days keeps replaying in my head.
We officially moved out of the apartment in Georgetown on Tuesday [July 15]. Once we knew, at the end of June, that his grandma would be released from the nursing and rehab home on July 4, we started moving to Temple.
In the two weeks she has been home, a whole lot of stuff has happened. At first, she was fine. Really talkative and excited to be home. We were cooking her low-sodium foods, having people alternate staying home with her while Brian and I had to work and keeping the dishes, laundry and grocery shopping done.
Last Sunday she went to the ER for her oxygen levels dropping too low. A hospice chaplain took the time to tell her she needed to start thinking about how she only had six months to a year left to live.
I specifically remember her telling me "It was depressing me," after she was discharged. This lovely woman whom I'd only known very well since April, was determined to keep fighting the fibrosis in her lungs, fluid in her legs and failure of her heart for as long as possible.
On Tuesday she was a bit more tired than usual. By Wednesday she had developed a fever. Over the last couple days she hasn't gotten out of bed except to use the bathroom, she sleeps a lot (if not constantly), and has a hard time getting enough oxygen to even speak.
While I'm sad for the decline, when I was convinced she'd be ok for at least a few more months, I know she is comfortable. I'm worried about Brian.
The following morning, a Saturday, I went to work as usual. At 10:18 I got a phone call, asking me to come back.
By 10:20, Brian's grandmother had died.
What followed was a week of funeral planning, plans being hijacked, estate examination, and of course mourning.
Now, Brian and I are still living in the house, waiting on the will to be probated, ensuring that he will get to keep it.
I quit my job in Jarrell last Friday. The distance was getting to be too ridiculous. I am only working part time at a restaurant here in Temple, and I'm getting very tired of the low-income lifestyle.
I finished updating my application to Express now, and I'm really hoping for some kind of response. Even a few days of eight-hours and more than $8.00 an hour would help me out.
Brian also proposed on Sunday, Aug. 2. We've made no plans yet, considering we are still waiting to find out if we will get to/have to stay in Temple for the next few years, or if we will have to move again.
So in a nutshell, there it is. What's been going on with me the last month or so.
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